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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Elgin Street Diner: a Diner on Elgin Street

Last night we found ourselves in Downtown Ottawa and decided to review our dining options on Elgin Street. The Lieutenant's Pump looked quite busy. Pancho Villa had space, but I wasn't crazy about last times food when visiting in August. We continued down Elgin Street and stopped off at the Elgin Street Diner (374 Elgin Street, Ottawa).

We were seated righted away by, what would turn out to be, our waiter. The place was moderatly busy and grew busier as time went on. However, this better known for their breakfasts which we have attended before where the restaurant was packed.

We reviewed our menus and placed our drink order (2 waters). 2 waters? Yes, bottomless fountain pop is now $2.99 at this location. Thus, I'm reviewing my options as quite frankly I usually only drink about 2 glasses at most restaurants. So $1.00 plus per glass now seems a little much.

Our waiter quickly dropped off our 2 glasses of water, swung around to another table to drop off their drinks and returned to inquire if we were ready to order. We, of course, were after reviewing the menus thoroughly for dining options. Thoroughly? I wanted a Club House Sandwich with fries, but the Elgin Street Diner has 8 different Club House style sandwiches to choose from. Decisions! Decisions!

The Order: 1 Smoked Turkey Club Sandwich (smoked turkey, black forest ham, swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato) on white with fries and a glass of water and 1 Salmon Burger with Fries and a glass of water.

The entire order came in about 10 minutes or less to be cooked and presented to us. Impressive service so far.

The meals were interesting. The fries appeared to be freshly cooked with that greasy glow to them. However, as I dug through my fries while eating them I noticed they were satisfactory warm, but not extremely hot. Perhaps this is so the diner is "Kid Friendly" so the little ones will get fresh fries without burning their tongues.

My Turkey Club sandwich was delious with the right amount of mayonaise. In hindsight, the only interesting part was there was bacon instead of the black forest ham as shown on the menu. I didn't realize it until writing this review that bacon had been subsituted. As well, the swiss cheese was not that noticeable. But nonetheless, the Turkey was well done and the sandwich looked and tasted appetizing.

The Salmon Burger was also interesting. The Elgin Street Diner served a breaded Salmon Burger which was interesting. In hindsight, this being a Diner and not a specialized seafood restaurant, breaded should be expected as opposed to regular Salmon grilled to perfection. Although, I suppose the Diner could have used an M&M Meatshops Salmon Fillet instead which would have make the burger appear fresher and possibly better tasting. But there was no complaints from my wife who said the Salmon Burger was "O.K."

Overall, the Elgin Street Diner is a traditional greasy spoon diner that specializes in traditional breakfasts as well as burgers, fries, sandwiches and other traditional diner fare. The food itself is excellent (even when not made to menu specifications as noted in the minor slip up above) and the service is fast and efficient with decent pricing.